The present invention relates to a gas turbine engine. In particular, the invention relates to an apparatus that aid in the manufacture or repair of gas turbine engine vanes.
A gas turbine engine ignites compressed air and fuel to create a flow of hot combustion gases to drive multiple stages of turbine blades. The turbine blades extract energy from the flow of hot combustion gases to drive a rotor. The turbine rotor drives a fan to provide thrust and drives a compressor to provide a flow of compressed air. In both the turbine and the compressor, stator vanes are interspersed between the multiple stages of blades to align the flow of gases for an efficient attack angle on the blades.
Stator vanes with a cantilevered-type configuration have been developed to reduce weight and improve manufacturability. For a variety of reasons, including efficiency, it is desirable to minimize clearance between the tip of the vane and adjacent rotor structures. Thus, tight tolerances between the tips of the vanes and the rotor are required. Such tolerances generally cannot be achieved when casting the vane, and therefore, the vanes are generally assembled and the tips of the vanes are machined to a desired tolerance.
One conventional technique for assembling the vanes for vane tip machining uses wax or plastic to encapsulate the stators. The wax or plastic acts to retain the vanes while a light grind is performed along the tip of each vane. After the grind is performed the wax or plastic is melted so that the vanes can be removed. The entire assembly and disassembly process is time consuming, and therefore, costly. Additionally, wax or plastic must be procured and disposed of with this processing method.